Rex Geveden, president of Teledyne Brown Engineering, speaks at a ceremony today where the company presented a $75,000 check to efforts of the University of Alabama in Huntsville to land the National Solar Observatory. John Horack, right, UAH vice president of research, looks on. (The Huntsville Times/Paul Gattis)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The effort to bring the National Solar Observatory to the University of Alabama in Huntsville got a boost today when Teledyne Brown Engineering contributed $75,000 to the cause.

In a presentation at the proposed site of the NSO on Bradford Drive near Sparkman Drive, Rex Geveden, president of Teledyne Brown Engineering, said landing the NSO would be a "game changer" for the city of Huntsville.

The ceremony took place on Bradford Drive near Sparkman Drive at the proposed site of the solar observatory.

The National Solar Observatory is seeking to combine its operations at a single location. UAH and the University of Colorado in Boulder are the finalists.

The NSO has said a decision will be made "by the end of the year" but John Horack, vice president for research at UAH, said a decision could come "sooner rather than later."

"This is extraordinarily important for us all, for this entire community," Horack said of TDE's financial contribution. "These resources wil go to fortify things like graduate students, opportunities for equipment purchases and other things that as the solar physics community evolves and grows in Huntsville as we build financial equity, intellectual equity and human equity, we're going to be able to carry this community very, very far.